For tickets - £10 for each event - ring the Whitehouse Bookshop on 01328 730 270 or email whitehousebooks@yahoo.com.

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Dan Cruickshank on Great Buildings

Art historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank has spent the last two decades making architectural films for the BBC and contributing to well known series like Timewatch, Britain's Best Buildings, Dan Cruickhank's Adventures in Architecture and the most recent The Country House Revealed. His books on the history of Britain's great buildings and cities span over thirty five years, the most recent being the Secret History of Georgian London (Random House, 2009).

Norman Stone discusses The Atlantic and Its Enemies

One of Britain's most celebrated historians and one time foreign policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Norman Stone has now turned his hand to the recent history of the Atlantic countries, so long on the defensive in the Cold War, and still on the brink following the collapse of Iran, the oil shock and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when the initiative seemed to lie with the Communist forces.  Now suddenly the Atlantic seems to have won, economically, militarily and ideologically, with astonishing speed and completeness. His Personal History of the Cold War provides a "surprising, highly entertaining and pugnacious guide" to this tumultuous period.

 

Rosamund Bartlett and Tolstoy - a Russian Life

Russianist, editor and translator, Bartlett is author of a number of books including a guide to literary Russia and an acclaimed biography of Chekhov. In Tolstoy:Russian Life she captures the extraordinary character of the great writer. She is 'better than any previous biographer... brilliantly traces how Tolstoy was read in the Soviet era, and how his depiction of simplicity and compassion attracted people in the face of state opposition and harassment'.

 

Simon Heffer after twenty five years in Fleet Street 

Former columnist and associate editor of the Daily Telegraph, Heffer has left to "complete a major literary project". He has written biographies of Carlisle and Enoch Powell, and this autumn sees the publication of A Short History of Power, confronting the notion of history as progress, consonant with his reputation as scourge of the liberal left. In recent years he has gained a loyal following from both readers and industry insiders for his emails to colleagues reminding them about the paper's house style, gathered together in his recent book Strictly English, making an impassioned case for an end to the sloppiness that has become such a hallmark of everyday speech and writing. 

Helen Castor talks about She Wolves

Historian at Sidney Sussex Cambridge, the author Helen Castor excels at making history approachable. 'She-Wolves' is an ambitious proposition, a study of medieval queenship intended to illuminate the frantic struggle for power that followed the death of Edward VI and the realisation that his father Henry VIII had eliminated all male claimants to the throne. A queen would have to reign, and the precedents were ominous. 

Patrick Barkham in Pursuit of Butterflies

'The Butterfly Isles' is an engaging and idiosyncratic account of the author's heroic effort to spot all 59 British species of butterfly in one year, weaving in the story of distinguished and eccentric lepidopterists from the past and butterfly fanciers and scholars of today. This book is a lyrical journey which brings the teeming natural world vibrantly to life, and records the extraordinary interdependence of creatures of whose existence most of us are ignorant.

David Edgerton investigates Britain's War Machine

The historian David Edgerton has taken on some of our most cherished myths about the Second World War and subjected them to rigorous scrutiny in this robust work of revisionism.  The image of a beleaguered island toughing it out alone is one of the 'most misleading in British history', says Edgerton, reminding us that wartime Britain was the heart of a global empire formed by trade as much as by colonies. In his view Britain was never alone, and was always strong.

Harry Cory Wright travels the British isles

The renowned Norfolk photographer has been documenting the different elements of Britain's coastline since 1998, using his large 8 x 10 inch Gandolfi wooden frame camera to capture the evanescent beauties of our natural landscapes in large format pictures. His company Saltwater Books has been commissioned to undertake a six month project travelling from the north to the south of the country with the camera, resulting in A Journey Through the British Isles, now in its second edition. 

Our interviewers:

Mary Ann Sieghart

Former assistant editor of The Times, where she wrote columns about politics, social affairs and life generally; she was a political and social affairs columnist both on the Comment page of the main paper and in the Times 2 section. She also wrote leaders, features, business and travel articles, as well as conducting interviews with leading members of the establishment. She now writes a weekly political column in The Independent  and presents Profile on Radio 4, along with occasional appearances on  Newshour,  Question Time, Any Questions, Today, Newsnight, and many other current affairs programmes.

Peter Stanford

Peter Stanford is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. His books include biographies of the Labour Cabinet minister, Lord Longford; the Poet Laureate, C Day-Lewis; Bronwen Astor; and Cardinal Basil Hume. A former editor of the Catholic Herald (1988-1992), he writes for papers including The Independent on Sunday, Observer and Daily Telegraph. He presents television and radio documentaries including the award-winning Channel 4 series, Catholics and Sex, BBC 1's The She Pope, Channel 5's The Mission and has appeared as a regular panelist on the BBC's The Moral Maze, Vice or Virtue? and FutureWatch.

 

Allan Mallinson

Allan Mallinson was a soldier for thirty-five years, during which he began writing his series of novels chronicling the life of Matthew Hervey, an officer serving in the fictional 6th Light Dragoons, from the late Napoleonic Wars through subsequent colonial conflicts in India, North America and South Africa. His non-fiction The Making of the British Army (2009) was one of Jeremy Paxman's "Books of the Year" (The Observer). Mallinson also writes on defence matters for the Times and the Telegraph, and reviews widely.

 

Jane Wheatley

Jane Wheatley has edited magazines in Sydney and in the weekend section of the times. She now writes features, profiles and reviews for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Times. Recent interviewees include Danny Boyle, Christopher Hitchens and Annie Lennox.